Staff at the University of Pennsylvania have expressed concern about a ‘hostile takeover’ by trustees and donors after billionaire alum Mar Rowan asked the school’s board to consider its policies.

More than 900 members of the Ivy League’s faculty have accused alumni and donors of meddling with the school’s academic policies in an open letter to the University Board of Trustees.

The letter by the Faculty Senate comes after Wharton Board of Advisors Chair Rowan sent an email where he described a campus ‘culture’ that ‘distracted from UPenn’s core mission of scholarship, research, and academic excellence.’

[Yes, UPenn is clearly entitled to donors’ cash without any input from them on how it’s spent and the manner in which the university operates. How dare big-ticket underwriters of these academics think their voices and perspectives matter? I’d say this not only validates the concerns of those donors, but should have US taxpayers thinking very hard about why we’re underwriting Poison Ivies with tuition subsidies and grants, too. — Ed]